INCENTIVE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Incentive

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɪnsˈɛntɪv/ /ɪnsˈɛnɪv/ Listen

noun

Incentive n. That which moves or influences the mind, or operates on the passions; that which incites, or has a tendency to incite, to determination or action; that which prompts to good or ill; motive; spur; as, the love of money, and the desire of promotion, are two powerful incentives to action. "The greatest obstacles, the greatest terrors that come in their way, are so far from making them quit the work they had begun, that they rather prove incentives to them to go on in it."

Synonyms: Motive; spur; stimulus; incitement; encouragement; inducement; influence.

adjective

Incentive adj.

Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulative. "Competency is the most incentive to industry."

Serving to kindle or set on fire. (R.) "Part incentive reed Provide, pernicious with one touch of fire."

See images of 'Incentive'

Etymology of 'Incentive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Incentive" Quotes from Famous Books

... intention of ending the affair so easily. He—the lady-killer, Vizcarra—to fail in the conquest of a poor ranchera! He had never failed, and would not now. His vanity alone would have urged him farther in the affair; but he had a sufficient incentive to his strong passion,—for strong it had now grown. The opposition it had met—the very difficulty of the situation—only stimulated him ...

— The White Chief - A Legend of Northern Mexico • Mayne Reid

... till you see her! Well, she was aboard the schooner for dinner with me, and she said: 'Daddy, if there is a real pirate's treasure, please go after it. Then you can stay ashore and not go sailing away from me any more.' So, I've a double incentive for pursuing this thing," and the ...

— Doubloons--and the Girl • John Maxwell Forbes

... the bottom of Rajah Muda Saffir's prahu had awakened in other hearts as well as his, blind greed and avarice; so that as it had been the indirect cause of his disaster it now proved the incentive to another to turn the mishap to his own profit, and to the final ...

— The Monster Men • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... who will abide with me during the darkness that is coming on—Patience, pale-browed, meek-eyed, sad-lipped Patience. If I can only keep my hold upon her skirts, till the end. To me, no good news can ever come. As long as mother lived, I had an incentive to struggle; now I am alone, and they who thirst for my blood are welcome to take it speedily. I know my mother is dead; I ...

— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... in something-like a settled stile. Let our confidence in future be unbounded; consider whether you find it necessary to sacrifice me to what you term "the zest of life;" and, when you have once a clear view of your own motives, of your own incentive to action, ...

— Posthumous Works - of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Mary Wollstonecraft

More quotes...